Effective Android Screenshots

Taking screenshots from an Android device is similar to other platforms, although a bit more setup is needed. With a little bit of additional editing, your screenshots can look clean and professional.

To get your PC ready for taking Android screenshots, refer to addictive tips for a good set of instructions; setting up a Mac is a similar process.

In the instructions below, we’ll clean up the extra icons that appear in the notification area (the top left corner of the screen) when the device is connected via a USB cable. In this example screenshot, notice the extra icons that we want to clean up:

Follow these instructions on your Mac to take better screenshots and clean those up:

Prepare the Android device with the screen or application you’re taking a shot of

Connect to your PC/Mac via USB cable

Take the screenshot and save as a PNG file (refer to addictive tips for instructions)

Open the PNG file in the Preview Mac app

Zoom in once or twice and scroll to the upper left corner

Select a rectangular area that is “clean” (showing just the header background)

Copy

Paste

Use the arrow keys to move the pasted block to the left (using the keys keeps the copied rectangle in the proper vertical position)

Repeat as needed to cover the undesired icons

This close-up screenshot show the copy area from the clean background:

And here we have the clean area being pasted over the icons we are hiding: